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Lego builds a crisis selling chauvinistic sticker

Both living and working in downtown Chicago, my roommate takes advantage of the added benefit that she’s able to walk from our apartment to her office each day.

Along the way, she happens to frequently cross paths with a band of construction workers from time to time, as well as a stationhouse where the firemen are often seen hanging around the front doors of the garage.

From what I’ve been told, both groups routinely flirt with girls passing by. However, never has my roommate once complained of the occurrence, nor mentioned feeling offended by the act. In fact, quite the opposite.

When she talks about it, she seems flattered, if anything: It’s better than their ignoring her; one may even find a little extra bounce in her step.

That said, my roommate is a 26-year-old city girl. Not a 6-year-old adding to her Lisa Frank collection.

Lego failed to see the distinction.

The toymaker has come under fire for manufacturing a set of stickers, within which one depicts a construction man catcalling out “Hey Babe!”

After an image of the sticker in question was featured in a blog post by Josh Sterns, he reportedly received an email from Charlotte Simonsen, senior director at Lego’s corporate communications office in Denmark, who explained—and I use that term loosely here—the brand’s rationale:

“To communicate the Lego experience to children we typically use humor and we are sorry that you were unhappy with the way a minifigure was portrayed here.”

As Sterns so appropriately contends, this explanation “is problematic for a range of reasons.” He offers:

“First and foremost, who would think that these stickers were a positive communications of the ‘Lego experience?’ Secondly, where is the humor in this? Especially if the goal is communicating with kids. I have followed up with Lego for clarification and asked a few more details about how their licensing agreements are structured and whether they had a chance to review products like this.”